Monday, May 13, 2013

DIY 1 Hour Maxi Dress

When it comes to maxi dresses they are most definitely a summer staple for me, but I encounter an issue that a lot of women over 5'9" have and that's the length. A properly fitting maxi dress should hit pass your ankle and for me I like for it to drag the floor slightly. This maxi dress takes literally 1 hour to drape and sew. Using this jersey fabric from Mood I did the following:

1. Measure your chest and subtract 3 inches, determine the length you would like the top of the dress to be and measure from your chest to that point. Cut one piece of fabric and double the length.
ex: your chest measures 34" and the length from the top of your chest (where the top of the dress would hit) and your waist is 7" cut one piece of fabric 62"x7"

2. Fold the fabric in half length wise on the wrong side, pin close and and sew two of the three sides closed making a tube. Turn the fabric wright side out and sew the tube closed. Top stitch the upper half of the tube.

3. Measure the length you would like your skirt and add two inches, measure your hips and and 15 inches.
ex: your length is 60 inches and your hips are 38 cut the fabric 53"x62"

4. Pin the skirt to the top creating pleats as you go, you can determine how large you want the pleats based on how much fabric you have left to attach the skirt to the top. Create pleats around the entire top.

First of all i love your blog...it is very inspiring.And i love this dress, and i want to make it asap.

However i was wondering, is it possible that you made a mistake with the measurements from the top..ex. you say to double the length....and when i check the measurements to me the breast measurements are double. i think it should be 31"x 14".If i am wrong than i appologize, but it is just that i read it over and over and even try with materials but it is coming out weird.

That's a great question, the bodice measurement is accurate and heres why. Because your using a jersey material and you want the top to fit snug across your chest, you need to cut it a bit smaller so if your normally a 34", in order for the top not to fit loose you need to cut a 31". To give it even more stabilty, you want to double the fabric which will give you a side seam and that's where the 62" comes from. This may be a bit confusing because normally in order to double the fabric, someone would double the width, not the length but doing this causes the top to roll making it lose some stability which is why you often see people constantly pulling up their top when they have on a jersey dress. I hope this helps :)